U.S. 17 improvements slow to come, Craven commissioners told

Local lobbying efforts for improvements to U.S. 17 in Craven County have been underway for nearly five decades and have been merged with regional efforts to four-lane the 282-mile north-south highway through coastal North Carolina.

Local lobbying efforts for improvements to U.S. 17 in Craven County have been underway for nearly five decades and have been merged with regional efforts to four-lane the 282-mile north-south highway through coastal North Carolina.

But in 2006, the longtime loosely formed Highway 17 Association became a daily operation and opened an office in New Bern with Marc Finlayson as its consultant.

On Monday, the Craven County Board of Commissioners got an update on the status of those lobbying efforts from Finlayson, but when it was over, the most expressed feeling was that Craven’s most dangerous highway is on the radar going nowhere fast.

Finlayson reminded commissioners that Craven has seen some recent improvements, such as widened a highway section in Bridgeton and the new, limited access segment from Clarks to Rhems.

Since the harder push coordinated with N.C. Department of Transportation, all segments needed to improve U.S. 17 are identified and are on the state’s Transportation Improvement Plan.

Many of those segments have major work completed. Others, like the Belgrade-to-New Bern bypass through Jones County, are funded.

“Advocates of U.S. Highway 17 have long asserted that a fully improved facility from South Carolina to Virginia would enhance economic growth for eastern North Carolina,” Finlayson said. A U.S. 17 Economic Impact Study completed this summer by the association and the N.C. Department of Transportation supports that assertion with reliable facts and data.

It shows that job creation and economic growth are byproducts of the seven major segments improved in recent years, like Bridgeton and Clarks to Rhems, and the Washington Bypass in Beaufort County.

In addition to safety, the improvements particularly help the agribusiness, military and tourism industries.

“Major improvements are still needed if the highway is to meet the mobility, safety and economic development expectations of the region,” he said. The cost of building the improvements would be high — an estimated $4.2 billion more than already allocated — but the cost of not doing it would be even higher.

Commissioner Tom Mark agreed, noting that the state continues to lose business to the ports in Virginia and South Carolina.

But even more important, he said, is the fact that there is twice as much traffic on the Craven County part of U.S. 17 from Vanceboro to the four-lane section at Bridgeton than there was when lobbying for four lanes began.

“And there are more accidents, fatal accidents, on that road than any other road in the county,” Mark said.

Commissioner Steve Tyson said that, if his information is correct, it would be 2023 before work even began to four-lane that section, so commissioners needed to appeal to the Transportation Rural Planning Organization to push for shoulder improvements.

Sue Book can be reached at 252-635-5665 or sue.book@newbernsj.com. Follow her on Twitter@SueJBook.